The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - Activities

A. Assistance to Member States

The initial program of the IAEA, unanimously adopted by the 1957 General
Conference, emphasized activities that could be undertaken while the
IAEA's experience and resources were still relatively limited.
High priority was given "to those activities which will give the
maximum possible benefit from the peaceful applications of atomic energy
in improving the conditions and raising the standard of living of the
peoples in the underdeveloped areas."

In the light of these considerations, two of the IAEA's major
objectives are to help member states prepare for the eventual use of
nuclear power and to encourage them in the wider use of radioisotopes.
Although it cannot undertake actual programs of development for its
members, it can assist them in initiating and carrying out such
programs. By the 1990s IAEA was active in assisting its developing
members in an impressive number of fields:

Technical Cooperation

The IAEA has been providing technical assistance to developing member
countries since 1959, in the form of expert services, equipment, and
training, with the objective of facilitating technology transfer in
various fields related to nuclear energy. The major fields in which
assistance is provided are nuclear safety, the application of isotopes
and radiation in agriculture, and nuclear engineering and technology.
Other important areas for assistance are general atomic energy
development, nuclear physics and chemistry, prospecting for and mining
and processing of nuclear materials, and the application of isotopes and
radiation in industry and hydrology, in medicine, and in biology.

Financial support for the IAEA's technical cooperation programs
comes mainly from its own voluntary technical assistance and cooperation
fund; other sources are extrabudgetary donations and contributions in
kind from member states and UNDP. In 2001, technical disbursements
increased to
US
$73.5 million from
US
$59.1 million in 2000. Forty-one percent of the disbursements went to
equipment, and 59% provided training, expert services, subcontracts,
miscellaneous services, and fellowships.

Provision of Materials

Under the IAEA statute, any member desiring to set up an atomic energy
project for peaceful purposes "may request the assistance of the
Agency in securing special fissionable and other materials."

The IAEA acts, on request, as an intermediary in arranging the supply of
reactor fuel and specialized equipment from one member state to another.
Argentina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Finland, Japan, Mexico,
Norway, Pakistan, and Uruguay, among other countries, have been
beneficiaries of such arrangements. Small quantities of special
fissionable materials have also been supplied to a number of countries
for research purposes.

Training of Technical Personnel

The IAEA's training program has retained its importance, not only
because the need for trained staff is pressing but also because less
elaborate preparations are required for assistance of this kind than for
technical assistance operations involving the provision of expert
services and demonstration equipment.

To meet the shortage of scientific and technical workers, the IAEA has
initiated a fivefold program:

Fellowships.
Fellowships are awarded in all subjects involving the peaceful uses
of atomic energy, such as nuclear physics; the production, handling,
and application of isotopes in agriculture, industry, medicine,
biology, and hydrology; nuclear chemistry; the planning, construction,
and operation of research and power reactors; health physics; and
radiological protection.

Assignment of experts and consultants.
The program provides for scientists and engineers to give advice and
in-service training to developing countries on various subjects.

Survey of available facilities in member states.
The IAEA collects detailed information from its member states about
their training and research programs, training facilities, and the
experts that they are prepared to make available to the IAEA. It is
thus in a position to act as an international clearinghouse for
training in atomic energy and to promote technical cooperation among
developing countries.

Training courses.
Regional and interregional courses have been organized on such
subjects as the application of isotopes and radiation in medicine,
nuclear instrumentation for laboratory technicians, the use and
maintenance of nuclear and related electronic equipment, radiological
and safety protection, physics, the utilization of research reactors,
nuclear-power projects and other high-technology subjects, the
preparation and control of radiopharmaceuticals, and uranium
prospecting and ore analysis.

Expanded training programs.
A number of developing countries, faced with the need to introduce
nuclear power, require special assistance in the training of their key
staff; the agency has therefore initiated an expanded training program
on nuclear-power project planning, implementation, and operation.
Special training courses contribute to the development of efficient
legal and organizational infrastructures for nuclear-power programs,
including instruction in quality assurance and safety aspects. In
addition, on-the-job training is arranged on subjects for which no
formal courses are available.

In 1998 IAEA conducted 14 interregional and 146 regional training
courses in 58 countries; more than 2,000 people participated in these
courses. The total program cost for the year was
US
$9.3 million.

B. Exchange of Information

While its assistance programs are directed primarily to the needs of
economically developing areas, the IAEA's program of conferences
and exchange of information is designed to benefit all of its
members—even the most technically advanced.

The International Nuclear Information System (INIS), set up by the
agency in 1970, provides worldwide coverage of the literature dealing
with all aspects of peaceful uses of atomic energy and is the first
fully decentralized computer-based information system. Countries and
organizations participating in the INIS collect and process all the
relevant literature within their geographic areas and send it to the
IAEA. In Vienna, the information is checked, merged, and further
processed, and the resulting output is distributed to individuals and
organizations around the world. The major products of the system are the
magnetic tape service, the
INIS Atomindex,
and the direct availability of the INIS data base on-line from the IAEA
computer in Vienna. The magnetic tapes and the on-line service,
available to member states and participating organizations only, contain
bibliographic descriptions, subject indexing, and abstracts and are
utilized for current selective dissemination of information and
retrospective searching. The
INIS Atomindex,
an international nuclear abstract journal, is published twice a month
and is available to the public on a sub-scription basis. An additional
service is the provision on microfiche of texts of all nonconventional
literature submitted to the system. In 2002, INIS membership included
over 100 countries and some 20 international organizations; it reported
on over 2,300,000 documents. Beginning in 1992 the INIS data base was
made available to INIS member states on CD-ROM disks.

The IAEA also cooperates with FAO in the provision of a similar
information system for agriculture, known as
AGRIS.

A second important information service of the IAEA concerns nuclear
data—numerical and associated information on neutron
cross-sections, related fission, capture, and scattering parameters of
neutron-induced reactions, as well as other nuclear physical constants.
The IAEA maintains an efficient system for collection of these data and,
together with three other regional centers, in France, the Russian
Federation, and the US, issues
CINDA
, an index to the literature on microscopic neutron data. It also
compiles
WRENDA,
the world request list for nuclear-data measurements needed both for
the development of fission and fusion reactors and for nuclear-material
safeguards.

The IAEA plays a leading role in promoting the dissemination of
scientific and technical information by organizing each year 15 to 20
conferences, symposia, and seminars and a large number of smaller
technical meetings. The IAEA has organized major international meetings
dealing with specific aspects of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
For example, some important 2000 meetings included: International
Conference on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management
(Córdoba, Spain); International Symposium on the Uranium
Production Cycle and the Environment, (Vienna); 18th IAEA Fusion Energy
Conference (Sorrento, Italy); International Symposium on Nuclear
Techniques in Integrated Plant Nutrient, Water, and Soil Management
(Vienna); International Symposium on Radiation Technology in Emerging
Industrial Applications (Beijing); International Conference of National
Regulatory Authorities with Competence in the Safety of Radiation
Sources and the Security of Radioactive Materials (Buenos Aires);
Seminar on Nuclear Science and Technology for Diplomats (Vienna);
Seminar on Nuclear Law; and Latin America International Seminar on
Implementation of Systems to Prevent and Detect Unauthorized Uses of
Nuclear and Radioactive Materials (Vienna).

C. Research

The International Center for Theoretical Physics, in Trieste, set up by
the IAEA in 1964, brings together specialists from developing and
developed countries to carry out research and to enable scientists from
developing countries to keep abreast of progress without having to leave
their own countries permanently or for long periods. Fellowships are
awarded to candidates from developing countries for training and
research, and an international forum is provided for personal contacts.
Associate memberships are awarded by election to enable distinguished
physicists to spend one to three months every year at the center. Senior
and junior positions are offered by invitation, and a federation scheme
is designed to forge a partnership with institutions in developing
countries. Assistance has been given by Italy and by the university and
city of Trieste. Further aid has come from the Ford Foundation and from
UNESCO, which in 1970 undertook joint management of the center.

The IAEA has three laboratories: a small one at its headquarters in
Vienna, the main laboratory at Seibersdorf (20 miles from Vienna), and
one at Monaco for research on the effects of radioactivity in the sea.
The laboratories undertake work in agriculture, hydrology, medicine,
physics, chemistry, low-level radioactivity, and environment.

A research contract program has been established with various
institutions in member states. The subjects include nuclear power and
reactors; physics and chemistry; radioisotope and radiation applications
in agriculture, food technology, industry, and medicine; water resources
development; protection of humans against ionizing radiation; radiation
biology; medical and biological radiation dosimetry; health physics and
radiation protection; environ-mental contamination; and waste treatment
and disposal.

To keep abreast of scientific developments, members of the IAEA's
scientific staff visit institutions in member states and conduct various
studies. The IAEA has made a survey of research trends in the
sterilization of food and drugs by ionizing radiation, a problem of
considerable interest to both developed and developing countries.

D. Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is already an important source of electrical generation,
particularly in industrialized countries, and technically and
economically ripe for an even larger application worldwide. As of June
2002, there were 438 nuclear power plants in operation worldwide and 37
additional plants under construction.

In response to the interest of developing countries in nuclear power,
the IAEA has played an increasing role in objective nuclear-power
planning studies for individual member states. Energy planning
methodologies have been developed and made available. The IAEA has
cooperated with interested member states in applying these methodologies
to specific country cases and in assessing the economic role of nuclear
power in meeting increasing requirements for electricity. IAEA efforts
to help strengthen infrastructures for the planning, implementation, and
operation of nuclear-power projects take the form of inter-regional and
national training courses; technical assistance projects, often in
cooperation with the World Bank; advisory missions to interested
countries; and the publication of guidebooks.

The IAEA started to collect operating experience data from nuclear-power
plants in the late 1960s and has now established a Power Reactor
Information System (PRIS), which monitors the performance of the
nuclear-power plants in operation in the world. In addition to
performance indices and data on energy production, the system contains
information about full and partial plant outages affecting plant
operation and about power-reactor operating experience in the world.
Periodic publications by the IAEA make this information available to
planners and operators in member states. In 1995, a new version, called
PRIS-PC, was made available online for direct access through the public
telephone network. Internet access became available at the end of 1996.

As an increasing number of countries are interested in the use of
nuclear plants for heat-only production and cogeneration (for example,
desalination combined with electricity generation), the IAEA
periodically reviews progress in this area. In addition, scientific
meetings on nuclear power are organized to discuss such matters as
economic competitiveness of nuclear power, integration of nuclear-power
plants in electric grids, operating experience, introduction of small
and medium power reactors, development of fast-breeder and
high-temperature reactors, and fusion technology.

In 2000, in response to the IAEA member states' requests under
two resolutions at that year's General Conference, the IAEA
initiated "International Projects on Innovative Nuclear Reactors
and Fuel Cycles (INPRO)." The project complements the U.S.
Department of Energy's (DOE) Generation IV International Forum
(GIF), in its focus on future nuclear technologies. The activities of
INPRO focus on developing long-term user requirements for future nuclear
technologies from the point of view of safety, nonproliferation,
environment, nuclear wastes, and economic competitiveness. The IAEA is
planning to hold an International Conference on Innovative Nuclear
Technologies in 2003. The IAEA will also invite the DOE to participate
in this conference.

E. Nuclear Safety

Although each state is responsible for nuclear safety with regard to
nuclear activities within its own territory, nuclear safety is a field
in which international cooperation can be very helpful, particularly in
developing safety standards and providing assistance. The IAEA's
activities in the field of nuclear safety include plant siting and
design, the transport of radioactive waste, emergency planning and
preparedness, and decommissioning. The IAEA also began work on an
historic Nuclear Safety Convention in 1991, the text of which was
finalized at a major international conference held in Vienna in June
1994. (See Nuclear Law below.)

The IAEA maintains a 24-hour Emergency Response System (ERS) staffed by
30 emergency duty officers. In 1992 the system underwent its second
comprehensive exercise to test procedures developed in support of the
conventions on early nuclear accidents signed as a result of the 1986
Chernobyl incident (see below). In addition to periodic comprehensive
tests, the communication systems used for notifications and requests for
assistance are tested at least once a day.

Regulations for the safe transport of nuclear material were developed by
the IAEA in 1961. These were followed by Basic Safety Standards for
Radiation Protection, which have been extensively revised in accordance
with the new system of dose limitation recommended by the International
Commission on Radiological Protection. The revised safety standards,
carried out jointly with the ILO, WHO, and the Nuclear Energy Agency of
the OECD, mark an important milestone in establishing international
standards for radiation protection. In 1992 IAEA published the first in
a series of radioactive waste management research abstracts.

The IAEA's Nuclear Safety Standards program provides member
states with internationally acceptable safety codes and guides on the
many aspects of safety associated with nuclear-power plants. The
program, which deals with protection against the harmful effects of
ionizing radiations, is based on experience in safety practices gained
by countries advanced in nuclear technology. Two types of safety
documents—codes of practice and safety guides—are being
developed in the areas of government organization, siting, design,
operation, and quality assurance of nuclear-power plants. For each area
there is a code of practice and a number of related safety guides. The
codes outline basic objectives and minimum requirements that must be
fulfilled to provide an adequate safety level. The safety guides
recommend procedures and acceptable technical solutions to implement the
requirements and achieve the objectives of the codes.

In recognition of the increasing emphasis on operational safety, the
IAEA initiated the Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) program in
1983 to assist regulatory authorities in the review of operating
nuclear-power plants. The program provides an opportunity for member
states to benefit from outside expertise and experience. An Operational
Safety Review Team is composed of about 10 experts, including IAEA
staff, to cover subject areas common to all reactor types, and
consultants to cover those areas that are reactor-specific. Experts from
developing countries have frequently been included. The reviews, which
take up to three weeks, help provide an international frame of reference
for regulatory and operating personnel and also provide the IAEA with
valuable insights in regard to updating its regular and technical
assistance programs.

Additional highlights of IAEA safety activities are: work on the
management of severe accidents and on emergency response; the
man-machine interface; probabilistic safety assessment; and advanced
safety technology. There is also a nuclear incident reporting system and
an International Nuclear Event Scale Information Service (INES). There
is also a program called the Assessment of Safety Significant Events
Teams (ASSET), which complements OSART. ASSET missions assess, upon
invitation, safety significant events involving nuclear power plants. In
recent years, there has been a greater emphasis on evaluation and
assistance to improve the safe operation of Eastern European nuclear
reactors.

As the number of reactor years of operation increases, the feedback of
experience is becoming a valuable means of enhancing safety and
reliability. Systematic reporting and evaluation of safety-related
events can make it possible to identify necessary plant modifications
and develop improved plant procedures. To facilitate the exchange of
experience, both the Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD and the IAEA have
established incident reporting systems to collect and examine details of
events submitted by national organizations. National coordinators screen
accounts of all events, passing on to the OECD and the IAEA the most
important data.

Response of the IAEA to the Chernobyl Accident

In response to the accident that occurred in the fourth unit of the
Chernobyl nuclear-power station in the USSR on 26 April 1986, resulting
in loss of life, injuries, and considerable radioactive releases, the
IAEA's Board of Governors met to elaborate proposals for expanded
international cooperation in nuclear safety and radiological protection.
Through a group of experts who convened in July–August 1986, it
prepared drafts of two international conventions on nuclear accidents;
at a post-accident review meeting convened by the IAEA in late August,
about 600 experts from 62 countries and 21 international organizations
discussed a comprehensive report presented by the USSR delegation. In
September 1986, a special session of the IAEA's General
Conference, attended by delegates from 94 countries and 27 national and
international organizations, adopted the two draft conventions: the
Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the
Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or
Radiological Emergency. The two conventions were immediately signed by
more than 50 countries. By February 2002, the Early Notification
Convention had 87 parties. The Accident Assistance Convention had 84
parties as of August 2002. In 1989, the IAEA and many other sister
organizations embarked on the International Chernobyl Project, to assess
the measures taken to enable people to live safely in areas affected by
radioactive contamination. It involved more than 200 experts from 23
countries and marked the beginning of ongoing cooperation between
intergovernmental organizations regarding nuclear safety.

In March 1994, an international expert safety assessment team examined
the safety situation at Chernobyl, at the invitation of the Ukrainian
government. It concluded that there were numerous safety deficiencies in
the two units of the plant that remain operational, noting that the
shelter enclosing the destroyed reactor was experiencing deterioration.
The IAEA recommended that the government of Ukraine hold a meeting on
the situation at the Chernobyl reactor. At that meeting, the Ukrainian
government pleaded severe economic hardship and an impending shortage of
energy as a reason to delay closing the damaged plant. It asserted that,
with international financial assistance, safety conditions at the plant
could be improved. The government also asserted that the output of the
Chernobyl station was a least-cost alternative for energy supply in the
immediate future. In 1994, five new nuclear plants were planned or under
construction; as of 2000, two had received sufficient funding to be
completed, by 2004 and 2006; construction on the other three had been
suspended indefinitely. In 2000, representatives of the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) concluded that significant
safety improvements had been achieved in the fourteen nuclear power
plants in Ukraine since 1994.

In March 2001, the Ukrainian government selected a design for a new
shelter to be build around the Chernobyl "sarcophagus."
The EBRD agreed to the design, which would allow for the work to begin.

F. Radioactive Waste Management

Safe management of radioactive wastes produced in all the stages of the
nuclear fuel cycle is essential for the growth of nuclear power. The
IAEA has been active since its establishment in all aspects of this
field, including the publication of
Safety Series
and
Technical Reports,
which give guidelines and recommendations; the holding of seminars,
symposia, and conferences; and the arranging of study tours for the
benefit of member states. Major areas currently being studied by the
IAEA are underground disposal, waste handling and treatment, and
environmental aspects of waste disposal.

Safety standards and codes of practice have been prepared on the
management of wastes produced by users of radioactive materials; the
management of wastes from the mining and milling of uranium and thorium
ores; the disposal of wastes in shallow ground, rock cavities, and deep
geological formations; and criteria for underground disposal of wastes.

G. Nuclear Law

From its inception, the IAEA has been faced with the need for
international coordination and harmonization of the principles governing
third-party liability in the event of nuclear damage. The absence of
special legislation might leave injured victims without redress. Great
difficulties might arise if different nations were to incorporate
different principles and procedures in their legislation concerning
third-party liability.

Some steps toward worldwide harmonization of compensation for damage
arising from nuclear operations were taken through the adoption of two
international conventions: the Brussels Convention on the Liability of
Operators of Nuclear Ships (1962) and the Vienna Convention on Civil
Liability for Nuclear Damage (1963). These two conventions set the
minimum standards concerning the liability of the operator of a nuclear
installation or a nuclear ship in the event of accidents occuring during
the international transport of nuclear materials.

Another convention was adopted in 1971: the Convention on Civil
Liability in the Field of Maritime Carriage of Nuclear Matter, which
came into force on 15 July 1975. This convention exonerates shipowners
from liability under international maritime law in the case of nuclear
damage falling within the purview of the Paris Convention on Third Party
Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy (1960), which came into force
in 1968, or the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage
(1963), which came into force in 1977, whenever the carriage of nuclear
material is involved; it thus eliminates what was previously a serious
impediment to sea transport of such material. A joint protocol relating
to the application of the Vienna Convention and the Paris Conventions
entered into force on 27 April 1992.

The Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material was
adopted on 26 October 1979 at a meeting of governmental representatives
held at IAEA headquarters. The convention, which came into force on 9
February 1987, is designed to ensure that the prescribed levels of
physical protection are applied to potentially hazardous nuclear
materials during international transport.

As already noted, two conventions on nuclear accidents were adopted at a
special session of the IAEA's General Conference in September
1986, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in April of that year:
the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, which came
into force on 27 October 1986; and the Convention on Assistance in the
Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, which came into
force on 27 February 1987.

In 1991, in recognition of the interdependence of nations in the nuclear
fuel cycle, the General Conference supported the idea of an
international nuclear safety convention. A draft convention elaborated
by legal and technical experts from more than 50 countries was submitted
to the General Conference at that time. In June 1994, delegations from
83 member states and four international organizations met in Vienna to
consider and adopt the final text of the International Nuclear Safety
Convention. The main features of the convention are the establishment of
a reporting system on the implementation by contracting states of the
obligations of the convention; the assurance of a proper legislative and
regulatory framework to govern the safety of nuclear installations;
general safety considerations to reinforce the priority of safety;
sufficient financial and human resources; quality assurance; radiation
protection, and emergency preparedness. The Nuclear Safety Convention
came into force on 24 October 1996. The first review meeting was held in
April 1999 in Vienna; it was attended by 45 of the 50 states that had by
then ratified the convention.

In conjunction with the increasing number of states embarking on nuclear
programs, there has also been a growing awareness of the necessity for
establishing both a proper legislative framework and specialized
regulations for the licensing and control of nuclear installations. The
IAEA has provided advisory services to several developing countries in
the framing of statutory and regulatory provisions in such areas as the
establishment of competent bodies on atomic energy; radiation and
environmental protection; transport of radioactive materials; licensing
of nuclear installations; nuclear liability; and nuclear merchant ships.

H. Safeguards

The basic science and technology of nuclear energy are the same for both
peaceful and military purposes. Therefore, the IAEA statute requires the
agency "to establish and administer safeguards" to ensure
that materials, services, equipment, facilities, and information that
the IAEA makes available are not used "in such a way as to
further any military purpose." Such safeguards may also be
applied, "at the request of the parties, to any bilateral or
multilateral arrangement, or, at the request of a state, to any of that
state's activities in the field of atomic energy."

Under the IAEA safeguards system, which was first developed by the Board
of Governors on the basis of these statutory provisions in 1961 and has
been continuously revised to cover all major aspects of the fuel cycle,
the IAEA exercises its control either over assistance provided directly
by it or under its auspices, or over items placed voluntarily under IAEA
safeguards by any state or group of states—for instance, over
reactors, their fuel, and fuel-reprocessing plants.

A major development greatly affecting the significance of the
IAEA's work was the coming into force in 1970 of the Treaty on
the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), under which states
without nuclear weapons and party thereto agreed to accept IAEA
safeguards on all their peaceful nuclear activities.

The objective of safeguards applied under agreements concluded in
connection with the NPT is the timely detection of diversion of
significant quantities of nuclear material from peaceful nuclear
activities for the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear
explosive devices or for purposes unknown, and the deterrence of such
diversion by the risk of early detection. This objective is achieved by
the independent verification of the findings of the national system of
accountancy and control of nuclear materials, which a state without
nuclear weapons must establish and maintain under the agreement. IAEA
verification is accomplished by material accountancy, containment, and
surveillance, including inspections, whose number, intensity, and
duration must be kept to the minimum consistent with the effective
implementation of safeguards.

The NPT was made permanent in 1995. As of August 2001, it had 187 state
parties. With several complementary regional treaties (including the
Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, also
called the Treaty of Tlatelolco; and the South Pacific Nuclear Free
Zone, or Rarotonga Treaty), the NPT provides the foundations of legally
binding non-proliferation commitments by countries around the world.

The (1991) discovery of a clandestine nuclear weapons development
program in Iraq after the Gulf War, however, demonstrated the
limitations of the IAEA safeguards system to detect possible undeclared
nuclear activities. This discovery—along with the emergence of
new countries with new security perceptions at the end of the Cold War,
and the 1996 report that the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea was not in compliance with its obligations under the NPT
safeguards agreement—was viewed as a call to action by IAEA
member states. By mid-1997 a strengthened safeguards system was put in
place to provide the international community with early warning about
the possible diversion or clandestine production of nuclear materials
that could be used for weapons purposes. At that time, the IAEA stated
that the strength of the safeguards system depended on three
interrelated elements: the extent to which the IAEA is aware of the
nature and locations of nuclear and nuclear-related activities; the
extent to which IAEA inspectors have physical access to relevant
locations for the purpose of providing independent verification of the
exclusively peaceful intent of a state's nuclear program; and the
will of the international community, through IAEA access to the United
Nations Security Council, to take action against States that are not
complying with their non-proliferation commitments.

The IAEA also applies safeguards to some of the peaceful nuclear
activities in five nuclear-weapon states—China, France, the
Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United
States—under voluntary offer agreements. India and Pakistan, both
nuclear-weapons states as of 1998, are not parties to the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty and have not accepted
"comprehensive" IAEA safeguards. Nor has Israel, with a
well-developed nuclear program and the technological capability to build
nuclear explosive devices.

In the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.,
the IAEA Board of Governors approved a plan designed to upgrade
world-wide protection against acts of terrorism involving nuclear and
other radioactive materials, including those that could be used to make
"dirty bombs." The Board acknowledged that strong physical
protection of nuclear facilities and materials is needed.

In October 2002, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
announced that it had underway an uranium-enrichment program, in
violation of its 1994 "Agreed Framework" with the U.S. On
29 November 2002, the IAEA Board of Governors adopted a resolution
reaffirming the implementation of IAEA safeguards in the DPRK. The IAEA
urged the DPRK not to take any unilateral action that might complicate
the IAEA's ability to determine whether the DPRK's
inventory of nuclear material subject to safeguards was complete and
correct. Subsequently, the DPRK requested that the IAEA remove seals and
monitoring cameras on all of its nuclear facilities. An IAEA conference
was held in Tokyo from 9–10 December 2002 to address ways and
means of bringing about wider adherence to IAEA safeguards. The question
of the DPRK's compliance with its nuclear non-proliferation
obligations was addressed.

Also addressed at the conference was the status of Iraq's
compliance with its obligations under UN Security Council resolution,
including Resolution 1441 passed on 8 November 2002. Resolution 1441
demanded that Iraq declare any weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
programs it might possess, and to allow for immediate and unrestricted
access of UN (United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission—UNMOVIC) and IAEA weapons inspectors to nuclear,
chemical, and biological facilities in the country. The weapons
inspections began, with Iraq's compliance, on 27 November.

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